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Barred Owl

Attached Images

Out to Circle B Bar Reserve this morning. The outing began wonderfully finding this Barred Owl within fifty feet of where our vehicle was parked. I hadn't seen the owls for about two weeks, reassuring to know they are still in the area. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

I'm really enjoying looking at this. The bird is engaging with the photographer and the open beak pushes it up a notch. I like the way that the perch forms a diagonal across the image. I like the foliage both on the branch and hanging down. Thanks for showing a bird we don't have over here.

Hi Joe, lovely capture with the beak open and great habitat trapping/surrounding the subject. The soft, pastel, muted colours of the background also work well and adds prominence to the subject. The diagonal branch adds too, especially with the wispy foliage.

Overall the subject I find is dark, with some blacks & shadows chocking the finer detail, perhaps a bit heavy with the blacks, Contrast & Clarity???? Loosing the Blue will help in the eyes. I've probably pushed it a bit more, but only to illustrate my points. This has the hallmarks of a lovely image, I just feel you need to control things a bit more and therefore bring a bit more life back into the frame. Learning to control Contrast in LR is key and if the image is well exposed then really you need very little to do in PP as the detail captured will come through and you can avoid over sharpening too, not applicable here though.

Agree your owl is a tad dark but would probably go in between the two b/c I'm pretty sure this was photographed under the canopy. Love the calling pose and the environment. I hope you'll be seeing little ones soon!

Hi Joe, lovely capture with the beak open and great habitat trapping/surrounding the subject. The soft, pastel, muted colours of the background also work well and adds prominence to the subject. The diagonal branch adds too, especially with the wispy foliage.

Overall the subject I find is dark, with some blacks & shadows chocking the finer detail, perhaps a bit heavy with the blacks, Contrast & Clarity???? Loosing the Blue will help in the eyes. I've probably pushed it a bit more, but only to illustrate my points. This has the hallmarks of a lovely image, I just feel you need to control things a bit more and therefore bring a bit more life back into the frame. Learning to control Contrast in LR is key and if the image is well exposed then really you need very little to do in PP as the detail captured will come through and you can avoid over sharpening too, not applicable here though.

Perhaps between the two in parts????

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve, I agree the subject was dark, sometimes I rush to quickly to post. Now I use very little contrast and clarity, mostly go with what comes out of the camera with a few tweaks. Not sure what you meant by loosing the blues? I revisited the image and worked on it this afternoon off and on. Here is a repost. I think it is between yours and my original.

Joe Przybyla

"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams